Species
+

Lespedeza bicolor Turcz.

Bush clover, Shrubby lespedeza, Shrub lespedeza, bicolor lespedeza, bicolored lespedeza

Climate known 71 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Lespedeza bicolor is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names shrubby bushclover, shrub lespedeza, and bicolor lespedeza. It is native to eastern Asia, ranging from southeastern Siberia to eastern China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. and it is widely grown as an ornamental plant. In some regions, such as the southeastern United States, it grows in the wild as an introduced and invasive species.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lespedeza bicolor”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Lespedeza

Lespedeza is a genus of some 45 species of flowering plants in the pea family (Fabaceae), commonly known as bush clovers or Japanese clovers (hagi). The genus is native to warm temperate to subtropical regions of eastern North America, eastern and southern Asia and Australasia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lespedeza”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Turcz.
Native to
Chita, Amur, Khabarovsk +10
Wild records
1376 in range· 703 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1307mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 248 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1307 mm a year, wettest July at 248 mm, driest December at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Desmodium penduliflorum Oudem.; Lespedeza bicolor f. acutifolia Matsum.; Lespedeza bicolor f. alba (Bean) Ohwi; Lespedeza bicolor f. albiflora Tatew.; Lespedeza bicolor f. grandifolia Matsum. and 22 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (923 mm of 1307 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.5 °C against a yearly mean of 11.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1307 mm a year, wettest July at 248 mm, driest December at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1307 mm a year at the habitat, 923 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 248 mm, driest December at 32 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 672 mm to 2266 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.7 °C, the absolute minimum -12.9 °C, about 110 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -7.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -18.4 °C to 1.5 °C), warmest day 26.5 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 1 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from -7 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1307 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1116 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -12.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost28.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-12.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–36RH 56–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1116 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -8–83 / -5–98 / 1–1214 / 9–1819 / 14–2323 / 18–2726 / 22–2827 / 23–2923 / 19–2617 / 12–2010 / 2–154 / -6–10
Night °C-7 / -18–2-6 / -15–2-1 / -8–55 / 0–1010 / 6–1515 / 11–1920 / 16–2320 / 16–2415 / 10–219 / 3–152 / -7–9-4 / -15–4
Rain mm36 / 8–10744 / 9–11768 / 19–17086 / 35–177114 / 61–210160 / 88–277248 / 136–402221 / 125–354180 / 73–28362 / 37–19256 / 18–13632 / 10–103
DLI17 / 14–1922 / 19–2429 / 26–3034 / 31–3636 / 33–3834 / 30–3730 / 27–3430 / 27–3326 / 23–2823 / 19–2517 / 14–1915 / 12–17
RH %57 / 53–6456 / 53–6356 / 52–6157 / 52–6159 / 55–6463 / 58–6967 / 62–7266 / 62–6962 / 59–6658 / 55–6357 / 54–6257 / 53–63

Each figure is the median across the 1116 grid cells holding the 1321 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1063:6363 (36.825, 138.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1116 distinct grid cells holding the 1321 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1063:6363 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_138.125, lapse-corrected +256 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 752 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChita, Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Mongolia, Japan, Korea· introduced: Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Ukraine, Kirgizistan, Uzbekistan, Ontario, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker37.522, 127.374 · in the densest population, 746 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1376 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 703 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 778 km away. 453 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 55 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1376 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lespedeza bicolorLespedeza bicolorLespedeza bicolorLespedeza bicolorLespedeza bicolorLespedeza bicolorLespedeza bicolorLespedeza bicolor

Photographs: (c) Wendy McCrady, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Sam Taylor, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Michael J. Papay, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lespedeza bicolor, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Effects of condensed tannins prepared from leaves of fodder plants on digestive enzymes in vitro and in the intestine of rats
Takao Horigome, Ravindra Kumar, Keinosuke Okamoto (1988) · British Journal Of Nutrition
Floristic diversity, stand structure, and composition 11 years after herbicide site preparation
James H. Miller, Robert S. Boyd, Martin Edwards (1999) · Canadian Journal of Forest Research
Antiproliferative Pterocarpans and Coumestans from Lespedeza bicolor
Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thủy, Jooeun Lee, Hee Min Yoo, Namki Cho (2019) · Journal of Natural Products
Potent inhibition of bacterial neuraminidase activity by pterocarpans isolated from the roots of Lespedeza bicolor
Hyun Sim Woo, Dae Wook Kim, Marcus J. C. Long, Byong Won Lee (2011) · Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters
Secretion of malate and citrate from roots is related to high Al-resistance in Lespedeza bicolor
Xiao Ying Dong, Ren Fang Shen, Rong‐Fu Chen, Zhao Liang Zhu (2008) · Plant and Soil
Plant diversity drives soil carbon sequestration: evidence from 150 years of vegetation restoration in the temperate zone
Qilong Tian, Xiaoping Zhang, Haijie Yi, Yangyang Li (2023) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Variations and factors characterizing ecological niches of species in a stable grassland plant community
Hongwei Xu, Xiukang Wang, Qing Qu, Zhiyuan Yang (2021) · Ecological Indicators
A potential anti-inflammation activity and depigmentation effect of Lespedeza bicolor extract and its fractions
Seung Jin Lee, M.D. Akil Hossaine, Seung‐Chun Park (2015) · Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 151 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.